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The merger with Adobe may be gone, but the rent-seeking is still there. The plans are generous – if you work all by yourself. If you get hooked on it and want t

The merger with Adobe may be gone, but the rent-seeking is still there. The plans are generous – if you work all by yourself. If you get hooked on it and want to work with one other person, it jumps to $24/mo ($480/yr) for the two of you if you need more than 3 boards.

solardev 3y ago
That's like, what, half an hour's wages per person per month? Doesn't seem unfair.
- kranke155 3y ago
  Depends on your location. I’m middle income countries that could be a days work
  - solardev 3y ago
    Does Figma not do regional pricing? That would be really expensive if they don't adjust for local costs.
    - kranke155 3y ago
      I don't know of any software that does regional pricing, except Netflix. The reason I've heard is because of fraud, people using VPNs to get it cheaper.
      - benatkin 3y ago
        They sometimes give a tiny discount, which is more in the form of rounding down. Here’s Discord’s Nitro pricing. https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/4407269525911-Nitro-Localized-Pricing-FAQ https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/4407269525911-...
      - solardev 3y ago
        I thought Microsoft, Adobe, Steam, etc do but I'm not sure.
        kranke155 3y ago
        Steam does have slightly different prices. Adobe I’m not sure, but between Portugal and the UK it’s the same price, even though Portugal is at 40% of UK income.
        solardev 3y ago
        Wow, that does seem harsh. I a always assumed (without thinking) that regional prices reflected regional costs of living. Guess not :( That sucks. Thanks for showing me!
        kranke155 3y ago
        It’s really an unsolved problem in software. And it’s a punishing tax on lower income countries.
durumu 3y ago
I don't really think that qualifies as rent-seeking... it's just that they have a good product that is expensive. You are free to use a product that is cheaper and worse.
dnissley 3y ago
Charging for a product that is actively being developed and improved is not rent seeking.
- benatkin 3y ago
  That's the logic behind Adobe Creative Cloud. A lot of people want something they could purchase outright, and I'll just grab the text: > Can I buy Photoshop outright? No. Photoshop is available only through a Creative Cloud subscription that you pay for either monthly or annually. You can subscribe to Photoshop alone or choose a plan with multiple apps. https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/plans.html https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/plans.html (bottom of the page)
  - dnissley 3y ago
    This has nothing to do with rent seeking. You just don't like subscription models. Maybe you think they don't deliver enough new value through the thousands of engineers they employ to justify a subscription model, and that they should cut costs and pull a Musk and lay off 90% of them (and other employees) and simply offer what they offer today for way less money. Or that they should cater to the very small portion of the market that's willing to pay $10k for a standalone version of photoshop. But obviously enough of their customers disagree with you that it doesn't make sense for them to go that route. It's not like they're using regulatory capture to force people to only use Adobe products. There are network effects but compared to social networks they are pretty weak -- if a truly better product came along people would start using that instead (see Figma vs XD). And on top of that the barriers to entry are very low -- you could literally start to copy their products pixel by pixel starting right this instant.

solardev 3y ago

That's like, what, half an hour's wages per person per month? Doesn't seem unfair.

kranke155 3y ago
Depends on your location. I’m middle income countries that could be a days work
- solardev 3y ago
  Does Figma not do regional pricing? That would be really expensive if they don't adjust for local costs.
  - kranke155 3y ago
    I don't know of any software that does regional pricing, except Netflix. The reason I've heard is because of fraud, people using VPNs to get it cheaper.
    - benatkin 3y ago
      They sometimes give a tiny discount, which is more in the form of rounding down. Here’s Discord’s Nitro pricing. https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/4407269525911-Nitro-Localized-Pricing-FAQ https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/4407269525911-...
    - solardev 3y ago
      I thought Microsoft, Adobe, Steam, etc do but I'm not sure.
      - kranke155 3y ago
        Steam does have slightly different prices. Adobe I’m not sure, but between Portugal and the UK it’s the same price, even though Portugal is at 40% of UK income.
        solardev 3y ago
        Wow, that does seem harsh. I a always assumed (without thinking) that regional prices reflected regional costs of living. Guess not :( That sucks. Thanks for showing me!
        kranke155 3y ago
        It’s really an unsolved problem in software. And it’s a punishing tax on lower income countries.

durumu 3y ago

I don't really think that qualifies as rent-seeking... it's just that they have a good product that is expensive. You are free to use a product that is cheaper and worse.

dnissley 3y ago

Charging for a product that is actively being developed and improved is not rent seeking.

benatkin 3y ago
That's the logic behind Adobe Creative Cloud. A lot of people want something they could purchase outright, and I'll just grab the text: > Can I buy Photoshop outright? No. Photoshop is available only through a Creative Cloud subscription that you pay for either monthly or annually. You can subscribe to Photoshop alone or choose a plan with multiple apps. https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/plans.html https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/plans.html (bottom of the page)
- dnissley 3y ago
  This has nothing to do with rent seeking. You just don't like subscription models. Maybe you think they don't deliver enough new value through the thousands of engineers they employ to justify a subscription model, and that they should cut costs and pull a Musk and lay off 90% of them (and other employees) and simply offer what they offer today for way less money. Or that they should cater to the very small portion of the market that's willing to pay $10k for a standalone version of photoshop. But obviously enough of their customers disagree with you that it doesn't make sense for them to go that route. It's not like they're using regulatory capture to force people to only use Adobe products. There are network effects but compared to social networks they are pretty weak -- if a truly better product came along people would start using that instead (see Figma vs XD). And on top of that the barriers to entry are very low -- you could literally start to copy their products pixel by pixel starting right this instant.